Crimea goes to the polls

March 16 2014

Anna Fefelova

special to RBTH

The Crimean referendum will be monitored by more than 70 observers from 21 countries. Source: Mikhail Voskresensky / RIA Novosti

The citizens of Crimea will vote on March 16 in a referendum widely expected to result in a request for the region to be a part of Russia. What questions will be asked of the voters and what comes next?

On Mar. 16, a referendum will
be held in Crimea according to a resolution adopted
by the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea on Mar. 6.

Residents of the peninsula will be asked to select one of the following options: 1. Are you in favor of Crimea joining Russia as a constituent part of the
Russian Federation? 2. Are you in favor of restoring the 1992 Constitution of
the Republic of Crimea and of Crimea's status as part of Ukraine?

The
authorities in Kiev consider the referendum unlawful, on the grounds that the
current Ukrainian Constitution does not allow regional authorities the right to
initiate a referendum.

However, according to a declaration of
independence adopted on March 11 by the Supreme Council of Crimea and the Sevastopol
city council, if voters taking part in the referendum choose in favor of Crimea
joining Russia, the Republic of Crimea, as an independent and sovereign
country, will appeal to Russia to be admitted into the Russian Federation as a
new region.

Voters are eligible to take part in the
referendum if they are citizens of Ukraine, 18 years of age and older, and
registered within the administrative boundaries of either the Autonomous
Republic of Crimea or Sevastopol, which is also a separate region.

According to
the state registry of voters, as of Feb. 28, 2014, there were about 1.5 million
eligible voters in Crimea and a further 309,774 voters in Sevastopol.

Talk of a referendum in Crimea first began
last month after the confrontation between the opposition and the authorities
in Kiev.

The Russian-majority population of Crimea feared a crackdown after the
new opposition-led government revoked a law giving the Russian language equal
status with Ukrainian in some part of the country and President Viktor Yanukovych
fled to Russia.

On Mar. 7, in a telephone conversation with
U.S. President Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin said that the new Ukrainian
authorities had come to power in an unconstitutional coup and did not have a
nationwide mandate.

Putin added that Russia could not ignore appeals for help
from the Russian-speaking populations in the eastern and southeastern regions
of the country and Crimea.

On Mar. 9, in telephone conversations with
British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Putin
said that steps being taken by the legitimate authorities of Crimea were based
on norms of international law and were aimed to ensure the lawful interests of
the republic's population.

Related:

A poll conducted in Russia by the Levada
Center polling agencyshowed that if the population of Crimea votes to join
Russia, 79 percent of respondents would be in favor of admitting the Crimean
Republic into the Russian Federation.

Only 12 percent believe that Russia
should avoid taking this step, with 9 percent of respondents undecided.

The Crimean referendum will be monitored by
more than 70 observers from 21 countries, including Israel, the United States,
France and Italy.

The Crimean authorities have announced that
if the majority of voters in the referendum choose in favor of joining Russia,
they will try to complete all the relevant formalities as quickly as possible.

According
to Vladimir Kostantinov, the speaker of the Crimean parliament, who spoke to
Russian news agency RIA Novosti about the vote, the process of joining Crimea
to the Russian Federation will take not more than two weeks from the day of the
referendum.

"The procedure is expected to be the
following: Crimea votes in the referendum, then the Russian State Duma votes,
then the Federation Council [the upper house of the Russian parliament] approves
it, and the president signs (the relevant document). We in Crimea hope that
these three actions will take not more than two weeks and that by the end of
that time, we should have a constitution ready. We shall submit it for the
approval of the State Duma," Konstantinov said.

However, Russia does not yet have the
necessary laws in place to accept Crimea into the Russian Federation. Under Russia’s
existing laws, another country or part of another country can join
the Russian Federation only as a result of a mutual agreement between Russia
and the other country, which must be confirmed by an international treaty.

However, the State Duma is already preparing
amendments to the law that would simplify the procedure and allow Crimea to join
Russia.

Pavel Dorokhin, the chairman of the State Duma committee on industry, said
that the issue of Crimea joining the Russian Federation was due to be discussed
at a plenary session of the State Duma on Mar. 18.

"A constituent part of
the Russian Federation can be a region or a territory or an autonomous
republic. The relevant status will be decided in consultations between Russia's
senior leadership with the Crimean authorities. We are ready … to support any
of the three options above," Dorokhin said.